


in my wildest dreams, i never dreamed of this

by HeartonFire



Series: no one has to know what we do [6]
Category: Daredevil (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, Kastle Smut Week, KastleNetwork, ksw: satisfying saturday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 14:05:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16064669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartonFire/pseuds/HeartonFire
Summary: Karen is struggling with a difficult anniversary. Frank does his best to help.





	in my wildest dreams, i never dreamed of this

**Author's Note:**

> satisfying saturday: hurt/comfort

**Can you come over?**

Frank stared at the words for several minutes. His heart was pounding. Karen didn’t text him unless it was important. But she didn’t say she was in danger. She didn’t say she was scared. She was just asking him to come over.

He could do that. He thought about taking his coat, but it was August in the city and it was too hot for all that. It smelled like rain. Something was hanging in the air over his head that he couldn’t quite place.

He skirted the main roads. It was over, he knew that. Madani had made sure of it. But he didn’t feel right, driving down major streets under the lights, visible to everyone walking by.

Even so, he was at Karen’s building in record time. She buzzed him up as soon as he rang, and he took the stairs two at a time. When she answered the door, she threw her arms around him before he could say a word.

Frank froze for a moment, the warmth of her against him still a surprise. He stroked her hair and felt her sob against his chest, shoulders shaking.

A door slamming down the hall snapped Karen back to her senses. She pulled away, wiping her eyes, and threw him a watery smile.

“Hi,” she said, voice shaky. “Come in?”

Frank stepped inside and Karen locked it behind him. Three locks and a chain. He smiled slightly. No one ever said she wasn’t smart, that she didn’t learn. He’d have to see about getting her an alarm, but not one of those crappy box ones, one that would let her control exactly who got into her apartment and when.

But this was not the time. Not when Karen was curled in on herself on the couch like she was in pain. Frank crouched in front of her and pulled her hands away from her face.

“Karen?” he said gently. She looked at him, then back down at the floor. Tears were rolling down her face, silently now. “Karen, what’s wrong? Are you hurt? In danger?”

She shook her head. “No. Nothing like that.”

“Then what?” Frank felt like he was falling off a building, heart in his throat. She wasn’t bleeding. He hadn’t heard any threats against her, and he was always looking for them. “Karen, what’s going on?”

She sniffed. “It’s a long story.”

“I got nothing but time.”

Karen looked at him again, eyes bright. “Did I ever tell you about my brother?” Frank frowned and shook his head. Karen cleared her throat. “He was my best friend. We went everywhere together.” Her voice was stronger now. “We lived up in Vermont, this little town no one’s ever heard of. He was younger than me, but we looked out for each other, you know?”

Frank nodded. He didn’t quite know what to do. If she was in danger, physical danger, he could fight to save her. He would die for her. He had killed for her. But this was something different. She needed something different this time.

“I was about to leave for college and I was driving him to his friend’s house. It was a normal day. Sunny, cool for summer, barely a cloud in the sky.” She closed her eyes, like she could almost see it. “I had never gone that way before and I got a little lost. The roads up there aren’t like in the city. They wind around and switch back and it was hard to tell where I was supposed to go. We rounded a corner and there was a truck. It was out of control, swerving back and forth between the lanes. There was nowhere for me to go, nowhere to turn, and it slammed into the side of the car, sent us spinning. I froze in that moment, and it was like it took forever to come to a stop. We rolled four times, they told me after.”

Frank squeezed her hands and moved to sit beside her on the couch. Karen turned her body towards him, eyes glued to their hands. She wouldn’t look at him.

“The truck driver never came back. Never checked to see if we were okay. I had this old, crappy cell phone and called 911. I don’t even know how I got signal, way out there. My head had hit the steering wheel and I was dizzy. I looked over at Kevin and he wasn’t moving. All I saw was blood. On his face, on the seat. Before I passed out, all I could think about was how hard it was going to be to get the stain out.”

She looked at Frank now, looked through him. He saw pain in her eyes. He recognized it. The loss there, the emptiness. He knew that feeling too well.

“I woke up in the hospital. My parents were there. They were crying. When I saw their faces, I knew.”

“Karen,” Frank said gently.

“It was ten years ago and it still feels like it just happened. It’s like I forget for a while and then it all comes back. And I feel guilty,” she said, voice rising. “Because how can I forget? How can I let it go, move on with my life? He didn’t get to.”

Everything snapped into place then. Frank knew why she had texted him. Why she had asked him to come over.

“Karen,” he said again. She bowed her head, shoulders shaking again. Frank felt like his heart was being torn out of his chest. He put one hand behind her head and pulled her into his arms. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and he let his fingers trail down her spine. He hummed a song he couldn’t name and traced circles into her hair.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, when she had calmed down a bit. Her eyes were red and her hair was tangled, but Frank couldn’t stop looking at her.

“For what?”

“I just felt like I needed someone. Like I needed you. But that’s not fair,” she said, shaking her head.

“Why not?” He traced her cheekbone with his thumb, wiping the tears away.

“Because you don’t need this,” she said, pushing away to stand by the kitchen counter. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, like she was trying to hold herself together. “I shouldn’t have put this on you. You have enough of your own stuff to deal with. I’m sorry.” She was talking fast, words spilling out of her mouth like she couldn’t stop them.

Frank stood and crossed the room to her. He ducked his head to look in her eyes. “Hey,” he said, and she shook her head again. “Hey.” One finger under her chin, he tilted her head up. “I’m glad you told me. I’m not glad it happened, but you needed to tell someone. I’m glad you chose me.”

She stared at him, eyes still glassy with unshed tears. “You are?”

“Yeah,” he said, gentle smile on his lips. “Explains a lot, actually. Explains how you got me so quick. Explains why you cared about me when no one else did.”

“I guess it does,” she said quietly. A shadow of a smile was there, but it vanished before it could take hold. “You don’t think less of me?”

“For what?” Frank said. “For a car accident? You did what you could.”

“But it wasn’t enough. I survived and he didn’t. That’s not fair. He didn’t deserve that.”

“Listen to me.” She swayed a little and Frank’s hand shot to her waist to steady her. “I know I haven’t been the best example of how to deal with loss, but I’ve been going to Curt’s group and he said something the other day. He said, ‘You didn’t have control over what happened, but you do control what you do about it.’” His fingers tightened on her waist. “And you’re doing amazing things, ma’am. I didn’t know him, but I bet Kevin would be so proud of you.”

She burst into tears again, arms wrapping around his neck and pulling him against her. He felt every curve of her body against his, warm and soft and Karen. Her lips found his neck, the spot below his jaw, his ear.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you.”

Frank let her kiss him. Each time her lips found a new place to rest, a wave of heat raced through his body. He was afraid to move, afraid to breathe, in case she stopped.

But she stopped anyway, blue eyes tracing over his face. She pushed away from him again, hand over her mouth, which was open in a horrified ‘o.’

“Oh, Frank. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Karen,” Frank said, throat feeling thick with something he had been holding back. He stepped closer to her, crowded her back against the counter. “Karen, stop.” She stared at him. “Don’t say you’re sorry unless you are.”

“What?” She was blinking at him like she couldn’t understand the words he was saying.

“Don’t say you’re sorry unless you are,” he repeated, watching her carefully. His heart was racing.

She shook her head, eyes fixed on him. “I’m not,” she mumbled, fighting to get the words out. He could almost see the wheels turning in her head. “Not really.”

“Then come here.” He cradled her face in his hands and pressed his forehead to hers. Their breath mingled together and she bit her lip. His mind flashed back to the last time he had been this close to her. There was no blood this time. No smoke. No police waiting to take him in. There was just Karen. And she needed him. Maybe it was selfish to do this now, but she needed him and he didn’t know what else to do. He had never been good with words.

Frank felt his hands shaking and he slanted his lips against hers.

Karen sighed, tongue probing past his lips, grazing against his teeth. Her hands tangled in his  hair and she tugged on it, pressed his face to hers harder, like he was going to get away if she didn’t. Frank had no intention of going anywhere.

Until Karen started moving, nudging him backward, towards a doorway he had made a point not to look through before. The backs of his knees hit a soft mattress and he bent them, pulling Karen down into his lap, her knees around his hips.

He had hardly noticed what she was wearing, but now, his hands slid over stretchy yoga pants and a cotton t-shirt, and then Karen’s hands were there with his, pulling the shirt over her head. Her chest was bare, almost glowing in the moonlight. Frank ghosted his fingertips over the swell of her breasts, the pink of her nipples and her head fell back. Frank nipped at her long, smooth neck and pulled her closer to him. She shifted her hips and pressed against him, drawing a groan from deep in his chest.

“Are you sure about this?” he mumbled, hoping and not daring to hope that she would tell him that this was okay, that this was what she wanted too. If it wasn’t, he would live. He would live and he would keep wanting her, but only in the places she wanted him to. Only in the ways she allowed.

“Yes, Frank. Are you?”

He grinned and kissed her again, holding her face to his and hardly able to believe it. “Yes. God, yes.”

Karen’s fingers found the hem of his shirt and pressed it up, sending shivers along his back where her fingernails trailed along the skin. He helped her get it over his head and dropped it on the floor beside them. She traced the scars from bullets, knives, bombs, shrapnel, and kissed each one. Frank fell back against the bed, hands moving over Karen’s ribcage, down to her hips. She ground against him, fumbling with his belt and the button of his fly. She stood and shimmied out of her yoga pants while Frank shucked off his boots and pants.

Soon, they were both down to nothing but their skin, and Karen lay beside him on the bed, head cradled against his chest, fingers drawing designs on his chest. He rolled over, on top of her, and kissed her again. She wasn’t crying anymore.

No, she was moaning, writhing beneath him, hips twisting up to meet his until he pressed them down into the mattress with one hand. The other was between them, snaking down from her belly button to her center. She was slick and hot, gasping for release, gasping his name. He kissed her neck, her chest, took a nipple in his mouth as he circled his finger against her clit. Her skin was so soft under him, and she was so wet already.

“Frank,” she mewled softly, fingers tangling in his hair. He slid his middle finger inside, and she moaned, hips snapping up to meet him. He added another, and her head fell to the side, hand clenching his hair so hard it hurt. He hissed and bit down on her nipple slightly. She tugged on his hair more gently, pulled him up to meet her lips again. “Please,” she sighed. “Please, Frank. I need you.”

“Wait,” he said, freezing when he realized. “I don’t have anything. I wasn’t…I didn’t…”

Karen smiled a little. “Top drawer.”

Frank kissed her one more time, then leaned over and grabbed a foil package from the box in the nightstand. He tore it open and unrolled it over his length, before laying his body over Karen’s again. She reached for him, arms winding around his back. He held her to his chest and slid inside with a soft groan. She was so warm and so tight, and he had tried so hard not to think about what it would be like, before this. It was more than he could have imagined.

Her fingernails clawed at his back, adding to the marks already on his skin. It was like she was trying to climb inside him. Like she wasn’t already in there. Like she hadn’t always been.

He couldn’t move for a long moment. He wanted to lay here, inside her, keep her safe in his arms, until the world ended.

But he couldn’t stop her from moving. She slid along his length and he bit back a cry he was sure would wake her neighbors. He might be out of legal trouble now, but he had a feeling her neighbors wouldn’t be thrilled to find out about the Punisher sleeping over next door.

“Frank,” she whispered against his ear. “Frank.”

He began to thrust into her, slowly at first, but building to a roar in his ears that blocked out everything but her. Everything but the blue eyes keeping him tethered to the world. She shook under him, walls pulsing, and he came with a shout he tried to muffle in her shoulder. Karen held him after, when he fell over her, crushed her into the mattress for a moment. He was trembling.

When he was able to collect himself, he rolled off her and shuffled to her small bathroom to clean himself up a bit. He came back into the bedroom and found her curled up, already asleep, blankets bunched under her naked body.

Frank lifted her and pulled the blanket back. He moved her underneath it and tucked her in, brushed her hair off her face. He crawled in beside her, one arm around her waist, her body molding to his.

He woke in the morning and she was still there. He had almost been afraid he had imagined the whole thing. That he would wake up and be back in his little apartment, in his bed, alone. He tightened his arm around her and she shifted, mumbling a little.

“Frank,” she said, turning to face him. Her blue eyes were still soft with sleep and she was smiling. “Thank you. For coming over.”

“You asked me to.”

She kissed him again, and he felt himself stirring again. He couldn’t get enough of her. She wrapped herself around him and he felt whole. He felt safe. He felt new.

**Author's Note:**

> I took this in a slightly different direction than I originally thought I would. I wanted Frank to take care of Karen, and as much as I love physical hurt/comfort (and we get lots of that in this fandom), I wanted to make it something Frank couldn't fix with stitches or medication. I hope you guys enjoyed this, and thank you so much to everyone who's been reading and commenting and leaving kudos. I appreciate all of you! :)


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